Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate she has made of the number of (a) family members, (b) professionals working with children and (c) unknown volunteers who acted as Appropriate Adults for looked after children detained in police custody in each of the last five reporting years.

The Government published the Concordat on Children in Custody in 2017 which clearly sets out the statutory duties of the police and local authorities and provides a protocol for how transfers of children from custody to local authority accommodation should work in practice. We are clear that children should only be detained in custody when absolutely necessary and where there are opportunities to divert children away from custody, these must be considered.

The Government is supporting Local Authorities to meet their statutory duty and to ensure there is sufficient provision in their area through capital investment. The 2021 Spending Review announced £259 million of capital funding to maintain capacity and expand provision in both secure and open children’s homes. This will provide high quality, safe homes for some of our most vulnerable children and young people and create new places and support provision in secure children’s homes in all nine regions of England.

The Home Department does not collect data on the type or status of the person who acted as an Appropriate Adult. Our Police Powers and Procedures bulletin found that for children who were detained in police custody, an AA was called in 99% of cases.

We part fund the National Association of Appropriate Adults (NAAN), which supports organisations providing appropriate adult services to young people and vulnerable adults in police custody and regularly engage with NAAN to discuss the provision of training to Appropriate Adults across England and Wales. More information can be found at https://www.appropriateadult.org.uk/.